Craiova is cool!

So hey! Craiova is cool! Haha I'm still liking it more than Bucharest. We've had quite a few lessons, and we've been getting tons of phone calls for our english classes, so I'm expecting a lot of people to come tomorrow. The church is quite a bit smaller here even than in Buc, but the people here are so prepared and they just don't know it! This week we had a few lessons, and had some people coming to our activities, and I can easily count at least 5 people who I could see baptized this transfer, which would almost triple the active branch membership haha. It's crazy. But the problem is that none of them will/can come to church! I don't know if a single one of them has been to church. But I firmly believe if we can just get them to come to church, then I can see them all getting baptized. They just need to see the importance of it.
 

Other than those lessons/people, the week has been contacting. What we usually do every transfer is that in the first two weeks we contact almost solely for our English classes. So that's what we've been doing. It's probably the easiest form of contacting, and it's a good way to start the contacting juices flowing with a new companion. Then, in the third week, when we actually start teaching English classes, we switch over to normal gospel contacting. So this week will be a lot of that. We've been pushing to have 20 hours of contacting each week. In a mission like ours, especially in an area like this with like 3 members, you contact a lot haha. So we're trying to work harder to have our contacting time be a bell curve this transfer; we'll work up the hours and eventually we'll have too many lessons so our contacting hours will decrease! We've been working a lot harder than I got to last week, so that's good.

So as you know, there are like 2 active members in this branch. And the church in general in Romania has a pretty high inactivity rate right now. It's such a weird thing because the language/culture is so abrasive to many Americans (for example you don't ask for things you just say "give it to me" and it's not rude at all, things like that are very common; you can say pretty much whatever you like as long as you use the right tense) and they'll say all the time that we get offended over little things, but most of the time when people go inactive here it's because of some small offense done to them that they can't get over.

 

It's hard for them to find forgiveness in their hearts. I have found this in myself that I'm trying to work on, and seeing how it all works out it this environment I just have such a strong testimony about forgiveness. We need to forgive others. I've found so far on my mission that there will be things my companion will do that I will, for whatever reason, take offense at. And I've found that it does nothing good at all to harbor feelings of bitterness or to hold a grudge. It just burns in the back of your mind like a cancer and stops the spirit from taking place in your heart. I've had a lot of opportunities to forgive so far on my mission. I haven't always taken them and used those times to forgive as I should have in that moment. But I've learned that when I let things go, I find peace! It sounds so corny but it's true! It does no good to hold grudges. We need to let things go. Even those things that seem too big or too much to forgive, we need to forgive. Looking back, there were lots of times that I've been upset or angry or holding a grudge, and didn't even know it. We need to pray to God to give us the ability to forgive and let things go. Life just goes so much better when we are free from the burden of anger or bitterness of a grudge.

So yeah. My testimony has grown so much since I've been on a mission. I just realized that this week will mark 6 months as a missionary for me. Yeah it still feels like I left the MTC a week ago. This is my companion's last transfer and I already know he's handling it much better than I will when I'm in that position haha. I'll be freaking out the whole time. But we're working hard to make his last transfer his best one yet.

And holy crap these pictures of Zack and Jacob are freaking me out! They look so old!! In the one of both of them after the track meet Zack looks just like Nick! Zack's looking so tall! It's going to be so weird when I get home...

Anyway I love you all and I wish you all happy days and love and sunshine and rainbow puppies and unicorns and to also happy halloween I hope you're all dressing like Dracula because he's the coolest ok bye.

Elder DeGraw

Train station out in the middle of nowhere where we went for a lesson.

The pumpkin I carved for the halloween activity.

I may or may not have been kissed by a man this week.

Hey so I'm in Craiova! It's really pretty here. Especially compared to Bucharest.

So on Wednesday afternoon we took a 3 hour train from Bucharest. Haha I was officially the last one out of my MTC group to ride a train out here. It was everything I've ever imagined. We got in kind of late, took a taxi to my new apartment, and then we got ready. We've been walking a lot. There's really no reasonable form of public transportation out here in Craiova, especially compared to Buc, wherein you couldn't get anywhere without it. Yesterday we walked like 3-5 miles out to a lesson, only to find out that the person we were going to meet with lived in a completely different town. But we ended up having a lesson with a different family anyway! It was cool.

Oh. And Craiova has some... interesting... people. Haha on my first day I met like four crazy people. So yeah, about that title. So they do the whole, double cheek kiss thing over here. Women do it a lot, and men and women will do it as well. Men will do it to other men if they are like the best friends in the world. Well anyway, yeah! We were trying to contact but this one semi-crazy guy was following us trying to talk to us. We finally got rid of him, but not before he "pooped" both of us (a pupa means to kiss, they'll say te pup a lot, which basically means "kisses!"). Blagghsshsashglakhglkaalgdjgla. I can still feel the stubble on my cheek... I keep blocking this encounter out of my brain, but it keeps coming back. But yeah. That's as bad as I've got out here, so far!

Probably the weirdest thing (for me, anyway) that I've noticed about Craiova, is the branch... So, the branch president is an American who works for Ford out here. So there's him and his wife there. And yesterday at church, want to take a guess how many Romanian members there were there?

...

...

...

...

1.

...

...

...

Yeah. There was one native member there. Mind you, there was also one "eternal investigator," as well as a great potential, but that was it! Haha the church is really small here in Craiova. We meet in a little villa which shares space with another organization. Haha. It was... interesting. But the Spooners (the branch president and his wife) are really cool. They made lunch for after church, and that included chocolate chip cookies!!

I had way too many. They were so good.

But yeah, not too much else to report! Pretty city, we're going to baptize someone, I can feel it! Elder H is one away from his mission goal of 10, and this is his last transfer! We're going to make it happen. This is the calm before the storm. Missionary work is going to explode soon. We'll make it so.

Love you all, and Oh! Family! I have put all of the pictures that I've taken on a google drive, I'll send dad the information so you can see them all. So dad just the pictures that I send in this email will be the ones for the blog, unless you find others you like too which is fine.

Yeah. So that's all for now!

Much iubire! Now for some pictures!

Yeah! Love you!

-Elder DeGraw

View from my new apartment in Craiova

Train ride to Craiova - Just like in the movies

I thought this looked cool

We call him "Uncle Rico"

Some flash mob type thing in centru. "I don't want to be a merchandise/property."

I'm going to Craiova!

So hey we just got transfer boards and I found out I'm going to Craiova, as implied in the title of this email! It's a bit smaller than Bucharest, physically as well as missionary-wise. It'll be a 4 man district. So this will be the first time in my mission where I don't serve in literally the biggest district possible haha, including the MTC. 

 

My new companion will be Elder H.  He's a very hard-working missionary, a very nice guy, and I'm super excited to serve with him. We're going to get some work done! Haha my district is going to be super fun. It'll be us two, as well as Elder M, who was in my MTC group, who will be senior companion to Elder H, who is one group younger than us, and both of them are hilarious and good workers. We're going to be a great district. I'm super excited. 

 

This past transfer my companion has had a lot of stuff he's had to do, so we haven't gotten to work as much as I would have wanted to. But Elder H is known as one of the more diligent missionaries out here. It'll be really good for me and I'm excited to get back to work haha.

This will be the first time since getting here that I'll be in a district with all new people! And probably the weirdest news this transfer, is that Elder L, who has been my district leader since I got here, and who is one of those who I know I'll still be friends with/keep in touch with long after the mission, just got called to be a branch president in the city of Bacau! He's both excited and really nervous, as could be expected. But I totally saw it coming haha. He'll be a great branch president.

So many people from my MTC group have changed cities, and like half of us are senior companions with the group under us, which is weird to me haha. We're movin up! Pretty soon it'll be our group that'll be all the zone leaders, BPs, and APs! It's ridiculous to me how fast this mission is going. I'm already 1/4 done with it... That's both weird and scary.

 

Other than transfers, I'm doing great! And just a heads up, so dad knows, I plan on getting a coat and boots in the coming weeks so you'll see some money come out of my account. I don't plan on spending more than around 300 & something Lei for the coat, or more than like 150 Lei for boots. But in case my tastes/desires change, the max that I've seen a coat was like 500 Lei, and shoes the max I've seen that I'd even consider buying were like 300 Lei. So those are the prices you could expect to see come out of my account. A missionary did leave a nice trenchcoat-like coat & scarf in our apartment, so I do have that already. But I need one that will also work out of missionary clothes and in missionary clothes. So that's what I'm going to get soon. 

I got everything you said you sent, so don't worry! 

I'm super sad to hear about John Kimball. He was a great guy. Give his family my condolences. He will be greatly missed.

Also, one last thing in case anybody is having ideas about sending me stuff for Christmas... Tell them to just not. Haha well I mean if they really want to, I won't stop them, but the money is not being put to as good of a use as it could be. For how much it takes to buy something, and send it all out here, I could get a nice suit, nice clothes, and more. Seriously with what the last package cost to get out here I could have. So if they REALLY feel like spending money on me, tell them to just put it in my account and I can get three times as much with it haha. I love getting letters and packages from you guys, they make my whole transfer, I just don't want you wasting all your money on me! So unless it's something that I can only get at home, just have them put the money in my account and tell me what to get haha. I know you guys love me:) 

 

Just my recommendation. I say this also because President told us to tell our families that if they wanted to send us Christmas packages they need to be here before thanksgiving anyway. So I thought I'd just tell you that instead so you don't have to worry about it! So yeah!
 

Love you all! Talk to you soon!

-Elder DeGraw

That's weird

So this week was good! Conference was fantastic, and all that. Just some little stuff, I now have a better way to send/share pictures with you all back home! I have permission to use a google drive, wherein I can upload all my pictures/videos and stuff and so they are both backed up, as well as shared with you at home because I'll give you the password info and stuff! So I'll get that all set up this week and send you the info soon.

 

Also mom just to let you know I did get the package! I got it on the 2nd, I believe. I have been getting fat ever since;) Little weird info, Oreos exist out here, but they're not even kind of as big of a deal as they are in the states. And they for sure don't have double stuf! It's a similar situation with peanut butter; they have it but it's not the best, and it's not as big of a deal. And those peanut butter cookies were just fantastimagical, and I am so excited to make my peanut butter chip brownies! :)

-SPECIAL BIRTHDAY PARAGRAPH BEGINS-

Happy birthday J! Hope you're doing great and loving life! Just remember that just because you're a teenager doesn't mean you're too cool for Mom and Dad;) stay sick  bro!<editors note: "sick" must be Romanian for "awesome">

Also happy birthday to all of my family members who've had birthdays that I've missed! Sorry I didn't say anything before but happy birthday!

-SPECIAL BIRTHDAY PARAGRAPH ENDS-

Yeah so we just realized that on the eleventh of this month I only have a year and a half left. O_o So that's weird. Also I realized that now my youngest brother is a teenager and my next younger brother will be driving in like two months. And I've been a missionary for like 5 months now. That's weird... I've found that I think that's my catchphrase haha. I don't think I'll ever be used to the fact that time is a thing, so every time something happens and I realize that time has passed I'm just in awe like, "that's weird..." Every transfer has felt about half as long as the one before. The MTC was actually so short, but while I was there it felt like forever, but now everything has just been shooting by! Pretty soon I'll be home and that'll be really, REALLY weird. But yeah.

So we watched both morning sessions live, and here that meant going to church on Saturday at 7 in the afternoon to watch it, and then we watched some other ones all day on Sunday. I love Conference:) It's such a good, uplifting, spiritual experience. It was fantastic. My companion said that this was his favorite conference he's seen since being a member, because he got so many questions answered. I did as well, answers both about things here and at home. I'm excited to read all of the talks again in the liahona when it comes out!

This past week, we had a lesson with Nick, and I think it's a definite that we're going to give him to the North Elders. He lives like 10 minutes away from their apartment, he would be in their North Group, and they all speak English, the language he wants to have the lessons in, so I won't have to be teaching the lessons all by myself. Plus Elder E was with me when we started teaching him, so it still makes sense that way.

I'm doing great, I'm excited for what next transfer will bring, and I'll do my best to end this one with a bang!

I love and miss all of you and command you to have a fantastical week!

Love,

Elder DeGraw